You People review: Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill riff over a barely there script
Black-ish creator Kenya Barris promises Meet The Parents with a twist, but his Netflix film doesn't deliver on its bold premise
Film Reviews Eddie Murphy
You People is a perfect movie for Netflix because it’s best watched for the first half hour and then turned off, which Netflix will count as a view anyway. Everyone wins, except those who hang in until the end, hoping the movie won’t slowly peter out after blowing through all the good jokes in the first act. Director Kenya Barris is best known as the creator of TV’s Black-ish, but as a filmmaker, he wrote Barbershop’s less-good sequel, Shaft’s less-good reboot, The Witches’ inferior remake, and yet another Cheaper By The Dozen that nobody asked for. You People marks his feature directorial debut, and since it’s a comedy about race, one might hope it would hew closer to his successful TV work. It does. But only for a moment.
Over the opening credits, Ezra (Jonah Hill) and Mo (Saturday Night Live writer Sam Jay) trade riffs about former President Barack Obama. They’re podcast cohosts of “The Mo And E-Z Show,” about culture from the perspective of a Black lesbian and a tattooed Jewish atheist. Their dynamic is a bit like an R-rated Weekend Update, both raucously funny and a potential minefield, as they discuss topics like the ALS ice bucket challenge and Black swimmers. There’s plenty of humor here that’s arguably politically incorrect, but in general, the characters make themselves the butt of the joke, which softens any potential blow.
Ezra’s more comfortable in a hip-hop milieu, and not so much at a Yom Kippur ceremony where he’s set up with a social climbing Jewish girl by his clueless mom, Shelley (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Their subsequent date is uncomfortable, mostly because she questions his ambition to host a podcast about Black culture. Only when he later meets Amira (Lauren London) does Ezra finally feel a connection. They hit it off so well that the movie skips ahead six months as Ezra prepares to propose.
First, though, it’s time to meet the parents, which is the film’s central comedic premise. Amira’s father Akbar (Eddie Murphy) is a Nation of Islam devotee whose wife Fatima (Nia Long) mostly just parrots his arguments. Shelley, of course, is the sort of overzealous liberal boomer so desperate for non-racism cred that she inevitably utters the stupidest faux-ally platitudes, while her husband Arnold (David Duchovny) is obsessed with rapper Xzibit.
In 2023, the film’s premise has an inherent flaw it might not have had in previous generations: outside of insular religious communities, parents don’t have the power to stop 30-something adult children from marrying anymore. They have the power to be pains in the ass, but that doesn’t come with the same stakes. And while Murphy as a straight man is excellent, ironically getting more laughs here than in some of his recent comedic turns, neither he nor the movie commits to it. Making him a full-on, Louis Farrakhan-style anti-Semite would render him unforgivable by the standards of a gentle rom-com, so of course it transpires that Akbar’s a bit of a poseur, whose religious commitment has been artificially inflated over the years. Murphy gets to indulge in plenty of improvisation here, playing off the likes of Mike Epps, as his freeloading brother.
The script may be credited to Hill and Barris, but it feels like it was a loose template to let the stars do their thing. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that Murphy begins the movie playing Akbar the character until he gradually morphs back into Eddie Murphy the comedian. Hill plays close to his usual shtick while Louis-Dreyfus, unsurprisingly, leans easily into an annoying self-obsessed vibe as Ezra’s mom. Elsewhere, Rhea Perlman plays Ezra’s grandmother, and gets absolutely nothing to do.
Barris’ direction is mostly rote, save for aggressive scene transitions that blast hip-hop and briefly turn the screen into a collage. He frequently parallels scenes between Hill and Murphy with similar scenes between Louis-Dreyfus and London, which never feels fair, as London plays the one character who bites her tongue while the rest continually go for laughs. Perhaps because the movie’s construction forces everyone to get along by the end, very little after the movie’s initial tense scenes carries the same sense of peril. Indeed, for the first half-hour, Netflix has a high-concept hit on its hands. Pause it there, and imagine the rest—you won’t do any worse than Barris and Hill’s script at conceiving an ending.
(You People premieres on Netflix on January 27th)
121 Comments
I think we need a moratorium on Jonah Hill riffing.
It’s Beanie’s turn!!!
No, she squandered that when she took my 250 bucks to see her in Funny Girl!
That’s on you.
Sometimes, high-concept work like this needs time in order to give the creators feedback for what works and what doesn’t work so well. This show seems to really be stepping out from “been done”, so if we want new types of entertainment, a little patience could be rewarding.
I honestly have no idea why Hill and Barris decided to bring Farrakhan and the NOI into this movie. The majority of Black Muslims in the US—like the majority of Muslims worldwide—practice Sunni Islam. The NOI makes up a TINY percentage of practicing Muslims in the US and most mainstream forms of Islam consider them to be a cult. It would have been much easier—and more accurate—to write Murphy and Long’s characters as mainstream Muslims, rather than aligning them with one of the most controversial religious sects in Black American culture.
I think they were trying to make it Poochie-fied – to the extreme!
You honestly have no idea? I think it’s pretty obvious why the (non-Muslim) writers of a Netflix romcom have absolutely no appetite for lampooning mainstream Muslim cultural and/or religious practices.
Because the NOI are very anti semitic, and it makes for bigger clash than just a garden variety Muslim family would have been when it comes to meeting their daughter’s Jewish partner and his family.
um, i think you answered your own question
It’s just easy conflict. The whole script sounds like the laziest possible attempt at any of this.
Also, writing an NOI character who’s ok with a Jewish son in law is like writing a National Socialist who’s ok with a Jewish son in law. Seriously. Middle East politics aside, I could believe a mainstream Muslim family accepting Hill’s character. This is just absurd.
Are you Black American? I don’t mean that to be confrontational, I’m curious. If so, where did you grow up? Because I’m Black, I grew up in major east coast cities in the 90s and if the NOI did not have a huge following, they sure had a huge presence. I don’t think you appreciate how central they were for African Americans, they were an important organization like the UNIA, who played a key role in articulating Black national consciousness and organizing in inner cities and prisons. Every single man in my family went to the Million Man March in 1996 and I’ve been to multiple Million Family Marches. My Dad was a proud atheist but he listened when Farrakhan spoke because Farrakhan was speaking to men like him, what I remember from Farrakhan’s speeches was a lot of talk about the need to build strong businesses and protect our daughters. Most Black people do not believe that white people were created in a lab by evil Jewish scientists or whatever but most Black people do have respect for the NOI. It’s complicated. I had a Jewish friend I was discussing this with who summed it up as, “imperfect conditions create imperfect leaders.”
You’re overthinking it. They needed a way for the Black couple to offend the Jewish couple, and that was the easiest way.
This is a real shame. That cast, and the trailer, have some promise that the film apparently doesn’t keep.
Louis-Dreyfus, unsurprisingly, leans easily into an annoying self-obsessed vibe as Ezra’s momThis reads like a weird dig at Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Don’t we consider her one of our great comedic actors?
I think it’s fair to say Louis-Dreyfus’ recent career has been defined by roles in New Adventures of Old Christine, Veep, and even the MCU where her characters would fit that mold (you could say Seinfeld too, I suppose, though I think there’s a different dynamic and it’s been years regardless.) It’s not really a knock on the actress but the limited range of character she’s been given recently.
leaving me longing for Dowd
I think the point (clumsily made) is that it’s unsurprising she can easily handle any task thrown at her, for exactly the reason you cite.
Yeah, I took it to mean she’s not afraid to commit to looking ‘bad’ in a role — she can play anything and make it funny.
I read it as a Seinfeld joke.
It doesn’t read as a dig, it reads as an acknowledgement of her most successful and long-running comedic roles.
…her husband Arnold (David Duchovny) is obsessed with rapper Xzibit.That right there sounds like it’s worth the price of admission
I’ll admit to being a Duchovny devotee, but it really does. He does comedy so well. He has no hang-ups about looking ridiculous.
His hand modelling work was flawless.
Mr. X[-Files] to the Z!
He’s surprisingly good in stuff like Evolution and Zoolander.
I keep Evolution on my DVR for just when I need something silly and funny.
It’s not the best comedy of all time but god damn do all the actors commit.
The scene where Orlando Jones has to get the bug out of his butt. *dead*
His understated acting in this film was fun as hell to watch. He was just along for the ride. And it worked. Wonder what he got paid for this, because it was the easiest lay up of his career.
There damn well better be at least several Yo Dawgs involved.
If we don’t get a surprise Xzibit cameo, I’m not watching.
Look, I can suspend my disbelief to an extent, but there’s no way the child of David Duchovny and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is going to come out looking like Jonah Hill.
Maybe he got all the recessive genes.
He has a twin who looks like a young Schwarzenegger.
Ha, iswydt.
You win.
I will now celebrate my victory with a fat doob.
Yeah but Carla Tortelli is his grand mother, so maybe it makes sense?
Eh, attractive people produce weird looking kids all the time. Just look at—and I’m genuinely sorry, because I’m being super mean here, but…—Bruce Willis and Demi Moore’s daughters.
Was Bruce considered attractive?
Super mean and inaccurate. While a couple of them are not natural beauties in the popular culture sense, they are all lovely enough young women and bear resemblance to one or both of their parents.
I looked up a current picture of them. They seem to have grown into their chins.
I had a similar hang up watching Hereditary. How did Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne have this Armenian looking kid?
My bugaboo is Family Business.An Irishman (played by a Scot) has a Jewish son and Puerto Rican DIL whose child is Matthew Broderick.
Wel that sounds like a personal problem.-The Caffeine Spider
Yeah I loved that movie, and until things got weird towards the end I thought ‘who cares if he’s adopted?’ But then all the stuff about male offspring came in to play and I was like ‘Whaaa???’
Hes like if Newman fucked JLD
Jonah Hill is looking rather grizzled these days.
He’s got a real “mountain hermit” look going.
he looks fucking terrible.
Shut up
Am NEVER unseeing this!
His tattoos are pure shit, too.
Answer: He’s playing Jerry Garcia in an upcoming Scorsese pic…
He looks like an overheated hot pocket.
Extreme weight loss does that.
Not a dig, but he looks like someone 6 months after gastric bypass. My issue was the hair, tattoos, and sun and wind damage to his face. It looked like he’s spent the past ten years aggressively surfing, which could have been a fun thing to incorporate into a pretty joyless movie.
No chemistry, so much label chasing, the only culture that matters is hip hop culture, awful pacing, bad transitions, just a mess of a movie and waste of talent.
Not one thing about this sounds, oh what’s the word I’m lookin’ for?
Oh yeah: “good”.
I don’t know, sounds like we get a solid half-hour sitcom out of it, without commercials. As long as he’s not in a fat suit I’ll watch Murphy do just about anything for half an hour.
It’s a full length movie
Yeah but the review says all the funny happens in the first 30 minutes.
So’s my johnson!
Oh, that doesn’t really work here, does it?
It’s okay, we’re all still excited about Maverick even if Slider wasn’t in it.
He stank.
yeah, i’ll be watching this and then re-watching ‘dolemite is my name’ afterwards as a palate cleanser
Is Jonah in his fat suit in this flick?
Kinda looks like it, doesn’t it? Maybe they filmed this before he finished shedding LBs.
It actually is pretty good for a long potion of the run time, until it’s cheesy cop-out of an ending. A lot of it depends if you like cringe-comedy or not
sounds like a great movie to be on twitter during.
I call these “laundry-folding movies”.
Rhea Pearlman as a Jewish granny sounds great. Hate to hear they sqandered it.
She was fantastic as a nightmare mom in The Mindy Project.
She had one good line at the synagogue in the beginning and that was about it.
Question: Is this the first time Eddie Murphy and Julia Louis-Dreyfus have worked together since being on SNL about [gasp – feeling very old] about 40 or so years ago?
Yeah, I was thinking this movie yells for a Tim Kazurinsky cameo.
Ah Tim Kazurinsky… of all of Ebersol’s cast members who weren’t Murphy or Piscopo, he’s at or near the top of my list for folks who deserved far more recognition than they got. Or at least something with a little more pizazz than a bunch of Police Academy sequels.I remember a funny story from one of the SNL books: He was brought on board at the end of the ‘81 season as part of Dick Ebersol’s efforts to right the ship after Jean Doumanian’s disastrous tenure. Also brought on board was veteran writer Michael O’Donoghue. O’Donaghue held a meeting with the cast and writers, where he said SNL was beyond saving, and how all they could do now is give it a “decent viking funeral.” Kazurinsky’s response was something like, “Gee, I just got started here. Could we at least keep it going long enough for me to buy a condo?”
In 2023, the film’s premise has an inherent flaw it might not have had
in previous generations: outside of insular religious communities,
parents don’t have the power to stop 30-something adult children from
marrying anymore. They have the power to be pains in the ass, but that
doesn’t come with the same stakes. That’s literally all they’ve ever been able to do in any generation. People were running off to elope against the will of their parents in the 19th century for crying out loud. Then as now the parents can be assholes and cut off the kids financially and socially but that’s all they could do.
That’s actually a fascinating dynamic. Plenty of 30 something people rely on their parents’ money, but nobody wants to acknowledge that fact, and it’s also become more of a “nuclear option” for parents to withdraw their financial support.
💯
I remember thinking funny Eddie Murphy was coming back after watching “Dolemite is my Name” but that turned out to be a bust. This at least sounds better than Coming 2 America.
Yea, Dolemite was surprisingly good. I had no idea the original Dolemite guy so earnest about his ridiculous movie and perceived talent.
Dolomite was 100% funnier than this because it was a vehicle for Eddie Murphy to be himself and more freewheeling.
‘…Barbershop’s less-good sequel…’Have you seen Barbershop lately? A lot of the humor is weak with the saga of Anthony Anderson (firmly in his “…and now, he hoppin’ away!” phase) and the ATM especially painful. I refuse to believe that the sequels aren’t better.
There was ass-to-mouth in Barbershop? You must have rented the Blockbuster unrated version.
You know that stands for automated teller machine. You’re not funny.
An A.V. Club C- is a real world B or B+. I know this from experience, or, pretty much every time it happens.
Yeah. I can see this being a Rotten Tomato 10% critics, and 80% audience kind of movie.
Watched it over the weekend. It was decent.
I was excited when the first trailer came out – only because it felt like Eddie Murphy would maybe be playing the straight man/not a caricature of Eddie Murphy. It’s very disappointing that it changes…ugh, does my curiosity lead me to watch ‘as much as possible’? Eh, probably not – there are Seinfelds to rewatch
“They’re podcast cohosts of “The Mo And E-Z Show,” about culture from the perspective of a Black lesbian and a tattooed Jewish atheist.”
If I wanted to write a parody sketch about how utterly shit modern life has become then this would be my premise. Fucking yuck.
How come Jonah Hill and Eddie in that header photo both look completely photoshopped?
Barris’ direction is mostly rote…
If there’s anyone that’s definitely a one trick pony it’s Barris. Black-ish, Grown-ish, Mixed-ish, Black AF, and now this. He’s a man of one idea and it’s tired.
This is a fair and accurate statement. Which is a shame, but very predictable.
Yes, I am also wondering how he’s as worshipped as he is — his stuff is fair to middling most of the time with a nugget of good thrown in.The BIGGEST mistake this movie makes, imo, is when Hill’s character meets with his prospective in-laws at Roscoe’s, its the FIRST time the audience has seen him with them. Have they met him before he’s approaching them about marrying their daughter?! WE HAVE NO IDEA!! We have to assume he has — but shouldn’t there be a scene where we actually see him meeting them to begin with – just as we do with his fiance meeting his family?! I mean — BASIC shit, y’all!!
This is a delightful piece of Netflix fluff, better than 99% of what’s on Netflix. I thoroughly enjoyed it. At this point Netflix movies should not be reviewed like feature films: Yes, if you saw this in a theater you would be disappointed, but that is never going to happen. See it on your couch as it’s meant to be seen; it’s funny and at times touching.
yeah i watched it with the family and we were entertained. an enthusiastic C+.
Right. Just think of it as a 90 minute sitcom with a great cast, and a cheesy ending. My whole family enjoyed it.
It should have been 90 minutes!
A lesser point to be sure but one problem I’m having with the script is that we have no idea how successful Ezra’s podcast is. He’s quitting a good job for it, but we have no idea if that’s reasonable or idiotic.
I thought it was pretty clear…they were getting thousands of live views in the beginning, which seems like a promising start, if nothing else.
I feel like “podcaster” is the default career for movie characters now, like architect was the default in nineties movies.
his fake finance job was even more fake than the fake podcasting job.
Also: I want a Tron wedding.
Right? That whole Deon Cole and Andrea Savage scene could have also been SO much funnier. Plus, she’s freaking hilarious and had a few stock lines and no humor. Given the cast of this film, the comedy was criminally undermined.
Yeah it’s like they took an edgy premise and found the safest joke — the black family is victimized by the white family’s dorky liberal awkwardness — and repeated it over and over and over. Duchovny sings a cringy song. Dreyfus accidentally sets Murphys kufi on fire. Dreyfus accidentally rips a black woman’s wig off, etc, etc. Meanwhile Murphy and his wife pretty much just stand there the whole time, arms folded and eyes rolled.
When they start saying again, “Ladies and Gentlemen” at online work, then I will return, but not until then! Florida is a common sense conservative state where most jd-60 people have brains!
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nice
1/27/23 8:23pmThis
is a delightful piece of Netflix fluff, better than 99% of what’s on
Netflix. I thoroughly enjoyed it. At this point Netflix movies should
not be reviewed like feature films: Yes, if you saw this in a theater
you would be disappointed, but that is never going to happen. See it on your couch as it’s meant to be seen; it’s funny and at times touching
1/27/23 8:23pmThis
is a delightful piece of Netflix fluff, better than 99% of what’s on
Netflix. I thoroughly enjoyed it. At this point Netflix movies should
not be reviewed like feature films: Yes, if you saw this in a theater
you would be disappointed, but that is never going to happen. See it on your couch as it’s meant to be seen; it’s funny and at times touching
nice
Why is the acting so horrible, like everyone is reading off of cue cards
So would this have worked better with Seth Rogen as Ezra, and added more physical comedy to the narrative? Just wondering.I liked it.I was expecting more hijinks, but it was surprisingly more low key overall.
Over the opening credits, Ezra (Jonah Hill) and Mo (Saturday Night Live writer Sam Jay)Aha, that explains a lot of why it wasn’t that funny. My wife and I had some good expectations for this film but it was slapdash and not very well thought out. Predictable. Also WAY too damn long—two full hours—could’ve cut a half hour easy.The script may be credited to Hill and Barris, but it feels like it was a loose template to let the stars do their thing. I didn’t fully think that. Jonah Hill was scripted to be overly awkward that his natural comedic chops disappeared completely. And Eddie Murphy was practically a mute until the final act. The bachelor party scene could have been hilarious but it was stilted and uncomfortable. Barris also tried TOO hard with racial messaging. Sometimes sublety—even with those challenging topics like white/black relationships—is better and more effective.
I’m excited that this movie is finally coming out because that means I won’t have to watch commercials for it any more in a week or two
I really liked this movie. I would have liked to see more Eddie/Jonah scenes- those were easily the best in the movie. Jonah Hill cracks me up anywhere, any time. I was impressed with him as I think it is his first real foray into the romantic leading man role and he did a great job. Eddie Murphy looks like a freaking movie star and it was interesting to see him dialed down and still be the funniest person in the movie. Everyone was great and it is definitely worth your time. Hoping Jonah is doing well mental-health wise and hoping he keeps going artistically in this direction.
In that picture Jonah Hill looks like someone wearing a bag with Jonah Hill’s face printed on it
𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐡 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚 $𝟏𝟓,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞. 𝐛𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐈 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 $𝟏𝟕,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐣𝐨𝐛. 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰
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https://t.ly/5m5I
I watched this movie out of curiosity after reading two competing reviews on Tablet Magazine, neither of which was positive. My takeaway was that the movie wanted the viewer to see the parents (especially Murphy and Dreyfus’ characters) as shallow and performative in their identities, but I just didn’t get the sense that the writers had the requisite knowledge of those identities to make that criticism any more insightful or empathetic than “hah, look at these fakers.” If Shelley is a caricature of Jewishness, it doesn’t seem that Jonah Hill (as the Jewish half of the writing pair) knows or cares enough about Jewishness to understand the “it” that Shelley’s just not getting. The movie also places an explicit equivalence between Murphy’s character’s deliberately malicious attempts to ruin his daughter’s relationship because he doesn’t approve of her choice of partner, and Dreyfus’ ham-fisted and deeply uncool but ultimately well-intentioned desire to understand her future daughter-in-law’s culture.
It felt like the writers got close to a good idea, but just failed in the execution.